Total noob here but I would like to better understand how IPFS works.
Through IPFS desktop a friend has pinned a 25 min video. I have, behind a VPN with an ip on the other side of the world, watch that video. Now with the “ipfs dht findprovs” we find that file is always tied up on his own server and no other server downloaded (cached?) that file.
Shouldn’t file be transferred to a server closer to the client?
Is that such a stupid question that it’s embarrassing to even read?
You are behind a VPN. Your node is not publicly reachable, therefore likely not providing, therefore findprovs doesn’t find it.
If your node has the blocks, ipfs refs local should show the CIDs. The file was probably transferred as you expected, it is just not annouced because people cannot connect to you.
Thank you Hector, but what if I watch that video while my IPFS server is turned off? I think there are many others server close to the ip location where the file can be transferred so why I can’t see them with ipfs dht findprovs. Is look like the file had simply not been transferred.
The file is only transferred to peers that request it. The file is not automatically seeded around to other people.
This is something I was missing. Each server must to pin the file from other server to spread it?
Not necessarily pinned, but retrieved at least from that peer.
To be short: just search for a file (and view/download it from my browser) is not enough to spread it around the world. Correct?
Correct, many people would have to do so, and their nodes could re-share the file too.
All clear, thank you very much.